A good service
According to Lou Downe, a good service should:
- Enable a user to complete the outcome they set out to do.
- A user should be able to complete their task easily.
- As far as possible, we want to achieve a seamless stream of events for the user.
- Be easy to find.
- The information, tools, and processes the user needs to complete the task should be easy to find.
- Users should be able to find the service without any prior knowledge of what they need to know or how it works.
- Clearly explain its purpose.
- The purpose of the service should be clear and obvious.
- Providers of the service should explain:
- What the service is for.
- What it will do for the user.
- How the service works.
- Set out the expectations a user has of it.
- What the user can expect from the service should be clear from the outset. This includes setting out:
- What does the service need from the user.
- What can the user expect from the service in return.
- Expectations: how long will something take? How much will it cost? Who can use the service?
- What the user can expect from the service should be clear from the outset. This includes setting out:
- Be agnostic of organisational structures.
- Users won’t care about how things work within the organisation.
- The internal workings of the organisation should be hidden and any handovers within the organisation or between organisations should be invisible to service users.
- Everything should look seamless, even if it is not.
- Require the minimum possible steps to complete.
- A good service should require a user to interact with it as little as possible before the service journey is finished.
- Be consistent throughout.
- Even if there are handovers between teams, other organisational units, or channels, the service should feel seamless to the user.
- Language, visuals styles, and interactions should all be consistent.
- Have no dead ends.
- All users should be given a clear outcome even if that is to explain why they are not eligible for the service.
- No user should be left at a dead end with no way back or out.
- Be usable by everyone, equally.
- Everyone who needs to use the service should have equal access to it irrespective of their circumstances or abilities.
- Respond to change quickly.
- ‘Tell us once’. If a user provides updated information in one place, this should feed through to all parts of the service.
- Work in a way that is familiar.
- A service should offer interactions and communications in ways that are familiar to the user.
- Don’t make things new or unfamiliar, which might be unsettling, just because you think it’s best.
- Don’t make choices the user probably won’t like and force them to opt out, let them opt in.
- As an example, although many companies do this, it is poor practice to preselect tick boxes for marketing emails.
- Encourage the right behaviours from users and staff.
- Services should be designed to encourage positive behaviours from both employees and users.
- Make sure employees are not incentivised to provide a bad service, for example through the way targets are set for performance.
- Clearly explain why a decision has been made.
- When a decision is made within the service journey, it should be clearly communicated and obvious to the user why that decision has been made.
- Users should be given a way to contest the decision if they need to.
- Make it easy to get human assistance.
- Make human assistance available to the user.
- A service should provide a way for users to speak to another human if they need to.
- Require no prior knowledge to use.
- A service should not use words which assume prior knowledge of the service from the user.
- Don’t use jargon.
Additional information
- Down, L. (2020) Good Services: How to design services that work. BIS Publishers. ISBN: 978-9063695439.